April 12, 2002

CONTACT PERSON

   

Name: Jon Hamrick

Phone: (850) 487-1578

   

  

DPBM No.: 02-83

MEMORANDUM

To:

District School Superintendents, School Board Members, and Facility Planners

From:

Wayne V. Pierson

Subject:

Statewide Emergency Shelter Plan and Tornado Protection -

Selecting Safe Areas in Buildings

On March 27, 2002, the State Board of Education approved the 2002 Statewide Emergency

Shelter Plan prepared by the Department of Community Affairs. This plan is available on a CD

from the Department of Community Affairs, Division of Emergency Management, and can also

be accessed from their

website at

http://www.floridadisaster.org/bpr/Response/engineers/index.htm

. An Executive Summary

can be found on pages iii through viii. To summarize, a shortage of shelter space for category 4

and 5 hurricanes still exists in 60 counties. According to the report, since the public shelter

design criteria became effective, 71 schools have been built to the shelter criteria, and 29 are

currently planned or are under construction.

The Department of Community Affairs has also published “Tornado Protection - Selecting Safe

Areas in Buildings” (March 2002). The purpose of this publication is to assist educational

agencies with the selection of the best available space within their buildings to provide

tornado/severe wind protection. This publication is a revision to the Federal Emergency

Management Agency’s 1982 publication “Tornado Protection - Selecting and Designing Safe

Areas in Buildings” (TR-83B, October 1982). The publication is only available through the

Department of Community Affairs

website at

http://www.floridadisaster.org/bpr/Response/engineers/documents/TR-83B.pdf

.

If you have any questions about these programs, or want to obtain a CD of the 2002 Statewide

Emergency Shelter Plan, you may contact Mr. Danny Kilcollins in the Division of Emergency

Management at (850) 413-9859.

WVP/jhi